Read Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire for Free Online

connections, of the people around me. That is what I bring to the bond, just as the draasin brings his understanding of the elemental power to the bond. It forges understanding, Mother, and understanding must go two ways.”
    She took a moment to consider. “I am afraid for you,” she said softly. Somehow, as she shifted more deeply into her chair, her face found a shadow and her expression changed, to reflect that fear.
    “I know what we face, what the bonded shapers of Par-shon will do. What the Utu Tonah is capable of doing.” Only, he didn’t know that, not completely. The Utu Tonah was too powerful for him to know well. “If I don’t do anything—if we don’t do what we can to keep the kingdoms safe—then who will?”
    She sat back and sighed. “You have come a long way since Nor, Tannen. Your father would be proud of the man you have become.”
    “I wish he would have been around. We could use someone with his talents.”
    His mother reached toward him and took his hand, squeezing it. “He made sure that you can carry on his talents. That was his greatest ability. And I am thankful to him for that.” She closed her eyes, a sad smile coming to her face. “You are much like him, you know. He would always argue with me. Not in anger, but using reason and passion for those around him to convince me to do what he thought was right. That was how he convinced me to answer the last summons.”
    She opened her eyes and caught his. “Did you know that I didn’t want him to go? I begged him, telling him that we were needed along the border. I no longer shaped as I once did and feared that with him leaving, the barrier would weaken, but Grethan felt that it was his duty to go, to help those who could not help themselves. I see much the same in you.”
    “I don’t want to risk myself any more than Father did,” Tan said. The revelation made him feel closer to his father – and to the Great Mother, as well. Maybe they were watching over him together. “But I know what will happen if we do nothing.”
    “As do I,” Zephra said softly.
    They sat for a moment in silence. Tan felt the soft pull of the wind on his arms, alternating from the cool of ara to the warmth of ashi, almost as if Aric and Honl battled for control of the room. The fire crackled softly, the gentle sense of saa working within the flames. Tan was reminded of the need to learn more about saldam and inferin, but for now, his connection to Asboel and his ability to draw upon saa would be enough.
    “What of Elle?” he asked, breaking the silence.
    His mother tilted her head as if listening to someone speaking in her ear. “I have not been able to reach Doma safely,” she said.
    “I thought that’s where you’ve been the last week.”
    “No. Incendin.”
    “Incendin isn’t the real threat,” Tan said. “They’ve been battling Par-shon for longer than we know. Maybe as long as the lisincend have existed. It’s because of Incendin that we haven’t seen the threat of Par-shon before now.”
    “Yet Incendin has still felt compelled to attack the kingdoms.” She raised a hand to cut him off before he could speak again. “Incendin is the reason your father is gone, Tannen. They are the reason many shapers have lost those they care about. Without the barrier, we’re weakened and we don’t yet have the strength needed to raise it again. We need time and we need to watch Incendin, to be ready for what they might do next.”
    “So there is no word out of Doma?” he asked.
    “None that I can reach.” She smiled at him, the same smile she had used when he was a child to soothe him. As much as she might recognize that he was now a warrior shaper, there seemed a part of her unable to view him as anything other than her child. “But Doma has been fine for generations. Elle will be fine.”
    Tan thought about Vel, about how the water shaper had been taken from Doma, his bond forced from him in Par-shon, and wasn’t so sure. “I should